Well there is our "problem"... We need to be able to have a "annual" membership and a renewal time. All other clubs I have participated in like Jeep/offroading or even the Arkansas Canoe Club have Annual Dues. I think it is a HUGE plus that we are FREE, but we still need to have the signup and renewals done annually so we know how many active members we have.This is the only way to figure out who the active members are without relying on site statistics.

Board, Please add this to the next agenda to modify the rules and the website to have a Annual Voting Member Renewal and Voting Member Signup. Lets say a member is active between 1/1/xx to 1/1/xx of the next year. One good thing that can come of this is a "donation" button being added to the signup or renewal area and will get people to sign up to vote waaaayyy before it is time. Lets allow our members to donate via paypal when they renew if they should like too. If rules are being modified, I would also add that a "Lifetime" membership could be purchased to where it will never require renewal or have to renew voting membership and could be implemented in the future. Perhaps we can classify the "members" as Arkgeo Supporter for non-voting people and general forum access and arkgeo Member which is granted all the Supporter areas but also has access to the voting and club specific forum areas and the ability to run for offices and such.

I can't believe this discussion has degraded to this level. A "donation" button to sign up for voting privileges (and the right to run for office / be on a committee)? Geocaching is a free activity, but you're advocating paying for the "privilege" of being a member of an organization that purportedly is there to advance geocaching in the state of Arkansas.

It's amazing how some people can read something & see something completely different than what most people would see. I read jclaudii's last post a couple times to see if I could come to the same conclusion, and I can't. What he's saying is if there was some sort of system in place to where all members had to renew (for free) their voting member status, then it would make it easier to see which members were truly still active. Don't log in to renew your "voting member status" you'd revert back to a regular member.

The donation button would be completely optional. If you WANT to donate because you just want to support ArkGeo, the perk of donating would automatically renew your voting status. The "lifetime membership" would be a way to show your ultimate support, and make your voting member status permanent. It's not actually a bad idea, but obviously the Board & the Webmaster would have to discuss all of this, one, to see if it's possible or easy to do, and two, to see if they'd even want to. It's not a "donation button to sign up for voting privileges" and no one said anything about paying for the right to be on a committee or run for a Board position.

There's a difference between playing devil's advocate & just trying to stir up the hornets nest.

Ahh the pitfalls of being organized, we know not who is with us or without us. The answer to this question my friends is blowing in the wind. However maybe we can do something simple to help narrow the scope of the task. We have a membership list, some of them voted most did not, some of them came to the annual meeting most did not. So lets take the membership list and move all those who voted to the active list, move all the ones who came to the annual meeting to the active list. Now take the rest of the list and move anyone whom you know has moved out of state to the moved out of state list. See who has logged in the website and how often. The members who voted, came to the annual meeting, still live in Arkansas and visit the website are you active members. No need to purge anyone. Mister McGillicutty said to me "so if I moved out of state I can't be part of the group", sure you can but you have to do something to let us know you still care and love us. SO WHAT ACTION CONSTITUTES being active, Logging in the web site and posting something, attended an event, voting, emailing and talking to other Arkansas Cachers. These actions show your intention to belong. But you know what happens if you don't use some credit cards for awhile, you get you account marked as inactive and you have to call customer service to get it turned back on.

Ahh the pitfalls of being organized, we know not who is with us or without us. The answer to this question my friends is blowing in the wind. However maybe we can do something simple to help narrow the scope of the task. We have a membership list, some of them voted most did not, some of them came to the annual meeting most did not. So lets take the membership list and move all those who voted to the active list, move all the ones who came to the annual meeting to the active list. Now take the rest of the list and move anyone whom you know has moved out of state to the moved out of state list. See who has logged in the website and how often. The members who voted, came to the annual meeting, still live in Arkansas and visit the website are you active members. No need to purge anyone. Mister McGillicutty said to me "so if I moved out of state I can't be part of the group", sure you can but you have to do something to let us know you still care and love us. SO WHAT ACTION CONSTITUTES being active, Logging in the web site and posting something, attended an event, voting, emailing and talking to other Arkansas Cachers. These actions show your intention to belong. But you know what happens if you don't use some credit cards for awhile, you get you account marked as inactive and you have to call customer service to get it turned back on.

Thanks McGillicutty for clearing that up, and I did want to reply to TnT that McGillicutty stated what I may have been unclear about. I think many of our members would give more if there were more options available to them hence why I even mentioned a "donation button". One example would be "Donate 5 bucks and get a free arkgeo window decal. I am 99% positive the renewing/reoccurring membership option is already built in and is very easy to set up. Within about a year, we'll know who our active body is on ArkGeo. I honestly think we have TONS more support out and about and at our events than we do with participation in our group forums. This statement leads me to my next approach. A mail in/manual option for membership. Just like some of the other clubs I have been in over the years, not everyone uses or wants to be on the club's forums or facebook/etc. So for those, they can mail or give their credentials in and still be a full fledged voting member. Every-time arkgeo hosts a meet-n-greet, there should be a few of us there to sign up new members and or get their credentials to communicate how they can become new members when we get internet back.

I think if we just send out a few notices that we are changing the way we keep track of active members and for users to please sign up for a free membership and send the link, they will do it. And those who don't, will just not have voting privileges but will have access to the site. Those individuals may sign up when it gets closer to voting time or if they feel it's time for more involvement.

I'm not sure how many of you have checked out the Arkansas Canoe Club(http://www.arkansascanoeclub.com/) or even the off road 4x4 club that plays at SuperLift Park in Hot Springs, http://arkansascrawlers.com/ but both of those clubs have good structures in place for their members. They know who is a member and who is not and offer some perks to members. Both have a "members only" section that would be where the ArkGeo, from the board, and a couple other sections would be kept. That would be one perk to singing up for a FREE membership would be to have full access to the entire site.